It’s hard to believe that The Young and the Restless has been delighting audiences for 50 years. The CBS daytime soap is one of the few that is still running after all these years, and it is more than just a show – it is a family. According to Reader’s Digest, well over 12,000 episodes have aired and it has become one of the longest-running series on television. There was plenty of celebration to mark both the momentous anniversary, and, of course, the fact that The Young and the Restless has stayed in the Bell family for 50 years.
The history of ‘The Young and the Restless’
The Young and The Restless is set in Genoa City and focuses on two rival families in the cosmetics industry. According to Soap Hub, the show’s creator William J. Bell had already changed the tone of soap operas as a writer on Days of Our Lives, introducing a more sexual approach to the show’s storylines. He, along with his wife, Lee Phillip Bell, began pushing the boundaries even further when they created The Young and The Restless.
The Bells created two families – the Brooks and the Fosters – and it was an amazing dynamic. Phillip Bell, a talk show hostess who used her experience on many social issues at the time to help create storylines, did an amazing job, as did her husband. In the late 1970s, the show won a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series, and the ratings climbed higher each year. By the time the 1980s rolled around, The Young and the Restless was so popular, in fact, that it won three more of the prestigious awards.
In 1988, after the Bell family had moved to Los Angeles to launch the show’s sister soap, The Bold and the Beautiful, the show was the highest-rated on television. It dealt with issues such as sibling rivalry and love triangles, and the creators of the soap worked hard to keep it as successful as possible until Bell retired in 1998. He passed away in 2005, and his wife in 2020, and the show continues to be wildly popular to this day earning a total of 11 Daytime Emmys.
The show has stayed in the Bell family for 50 years
So, which of the Bell children are now running Y&R and The Bold and the Beautiful? Bell’s daughter, Lauralee Bell is starring on Y&R, and her brother Bradley is the head writer on The Bold and the Beautiful. They continue to run the show, carrying on their parent’s legacy, and Deadline reports that Bell’s children are daytime television’s most important stewards. Says Bell, who speaks of her dad fondly, “We’re representing dad in such big way. I was getting ready to do an interview the other day and out of nowhere this huge, overwhelming feeling came over me. I wondered, did dad ever consider that he wouldn’t be here at one point and did it make him feel a little bit better knowing that Brad and I were all in? Did he ever have a moment where he was like, ‘it’s gonna be okay because my kids got me?’”
Fun facts about ‘Y&R’
The 50 year celebration was emotional to say the least, and fans likely are interested in some fun facts about the soap. According to tvovermind, the show has had some of the most famous actors in major roles, including Eva Longoria, David Hasselhoff, and Tom Selleck. In addition, cast member Jeanne Cooper was the first daytime soap actor to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. One of the most interesting things about Y&R is that the show is quite the trendsetter! It was the first soap to air in high definition, and eventually, every other soap followed suit.
It is so wonderful that the Bell’s children continue to honor their work after five decades, and we look forward to watching for years to come.
